Diagonal Thoughts

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I'm Here

from someone's flickr

So, after Pat O'Neill's work, they created all these sweet (now common) special effects on like, Final Cut.  When will they come up with that sort of contraption to make cameras easier to use?  "I'll just put it in 'dolly zoom' mode and that'll make the background look like it's being pushed back!"  It's an idea...

collage notebook

circa 2000?  I forgot how much I actually liked to do collage-type stuff...

in mentioning The White Stripes today...

"Under Great White Northern Lights" Trailer
I went to the screening of this documentary and since I haven't been able to stop thinking about The White Stripes.  While their singles are overplayed (try "Ball and Biscuit"?), half their songs don't even sound like that.  Try listening to "This Protector" or "As Ugly as I Seem".  Jack White is so extremely talented.  (Just look at the Raconteurs, the "Cold Mountain" soundtrack, etc.)

In the documentary, he talks about why they decide to only ever use black, white, and red.  If you have the entire rainbow, it all becomes cluttered.  Too many choices.  Sometimes you need restrictions.  A deadline can provide you with some of your best work.

It also shows some of the improvisation that comes with being an artist like that.  He mentioned set lists, "Back when we used to have set lists..." because now they just play.  Off each other.  Live.  You can hear some of that on this album, and how they seem to improvise on nearly every song.

Anyway... check it out if ya can.  It's also a pretty sweet film in itself.

And I apologize for looking entirely too shitty this week.  My THIRD anti-seizure medication gave me a wicked rash on my face.  Damnit.

up late...

So why not post?  I freaking LOVED Peggy Ahwesh's "The Color of Love".  Jeanne, have we watched her films before?  I looked up her different pieces, but have a hard time remembering by titles (or anything short of seeing it again).

"Skin figures prominently in her 1994 film The Color of Love.  To make it, Ahwesh started with a pornographic super-8 film that came her way. The film was damaged, its image withered by deteriorating, blighted emulsion.  Ahwesh’s film raise the question: what color is love?  In this case, Eros is rose.  Ahwesh manipulated the found film on an optical printer to enhance the carnality of the colors and the duration of particular parts.  By complicating the formal qualities of the skin-flick, Ahwesh comments on the desire to look.  The turbulent surface of the film seems to manifest the desire of the figures on view, but it also seems to be symptomatic of a disease.  But where is this symptom?  Is it in the film?  Or in us?  Or more precisely, between us and the image?  The Color of Love is as much a film about film as it is about sex.  It’s not incidental that the action involves two women who intertwine in the presence of a man who lies quiescent between and beneath them.  Is it possible he’s a dead man?"
Chicago Public Radio

"Nocturne"
Mentions "Fuses" by Carolee Schneemann... watch it!
(Even though the one person that reads this has already seen it.)

Happy Dancing Cookies (3-Image edit)

Obviously taken from the Steenbeck.
Horrible quality.  Boo phone.

this too shall pass

Today, in watching Snider's film, I realized what I want my final project to start migrating towards what I've come to experience the last... year?  I was told yesterday all this information about the doubled chance of birth defects in a fetus whilst on anti-seizure medication.  While I will not be getting pregnant ANY time soon, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.  I'm going to incorporate "The Origin of Life" (birthing) film I bought off eBay last semester into this last piece.

In having those seizures I'm not supposed to drive.  I shouldn't be playing Rock Band.  I shouldn't be watching films with flicker in them, when, hello?! I'm in experimental film school.  And these are all things I LOVE to do.

Thank goodness this has only come to fruition in my last semester, or else I would've had to miss a lot.  Sorry for not being able to finish the "Backwards Birth of a Nation" today... I can stand to watch it as long as I look through my fingers and close my eyes a lot.

Drugs are BAD.

But here, take these.  For the next 2 years.

Even though they make you feel like SHIT.

on the bright side... you will not be disappointed with this video!
 OK GO - "This Too Shall Pass" (Rube Goldberg!)

My family's always been a big fan of home movies.  My parents always had this giant monster of a VHS camcorder that they remembered to take with them on trips and vacations.  My dad's currently going through the all the tapes, transferring them to DVD and making copies to send out.

Here are a few pictures I happened to take last week at my friend's house.

I started (and finished?) my 3 image edit on Saturday.  I was so excited that I once again forgot to take any pictures of my process.

 

  

I love Cornell's work... I'm a great fan of his boxes.  Great article on him.

And the "Reel Families" article touched home.  "Pleasure or Money".

I want to say more, but can't think of it.